Editing Column (section)

===Doric order===
{{main|Doric order}}

The [[Doric order]] is the oldest and simplest of the classical orders. It is composed of a vertical [[cylinder (geometry)|cylinder]] that is wider at the bottom.  It generally has neither a base nor a detailed [[Capital (architecture)|capital]]. It is instead often topped with an inverted [[frustum]] of a shallow cone or a cylindrical band of carvings.  It is often referred to as the masculine order because it is represented in the bottom level of the [[Colosseum]] and the [[Parthenon]], and was therefore considered to be able to hold more weight. The height-to-thickness ratio is about 8:1. The shaft of a Doric Column is almost always [[Fluting (architecture)|fluted]].

The Greek Doric, developed in the western Dorian region of Greece, is the heaviest and most massive of the orders. It rises from the [[stylobate]] without any base; it is from four to six times as tall as its diameter; it has twenty broad flutes; the capital consists simply of a banded necking swelling out into a smooth echinus, which carries a flat square abacus; the Doric entablature is also the heaviest, being about one-fourth the height column. The Greek Doric order was not used after c. 100 B.C. until its “rediscovery” in the mid-eighteenth century.